Russia Shuts off Natural Gas Deliveries to Ukraine
Articles — By forcechange on January 1, 2009 11:40 am
On Thursday, Russian energy monopoly Gazprom, shut off the entire flow of natural gas to Ukraine for that country’s domestic consumption. Ostensibly, the dispute is over price and transit fee negotiations, however, larger geopolitical and economic issues are surely the underlying causes.
The Kremlin has often used its control of Russian natural resources as a tool for international relations. In 2006, Russia shut down deliveries of natural gas to Ukraine for three days, which many attributed to tensions between the two countries stemming from Ukraine’s Orange Revolution in 2004. And earlier this year, the Czech Republic saw a decrease in oil deliveries from Russia, three days after it signed an antiballistic missile agreement with the U.S.
If the current interruption in Ukrainian deliveries continue, Western Europe will also experience shortages, as they receive their natural gas from Russia on the same pipeline.
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